He was below the three substitutes: Fabian Delph, Eric Dier and Marcus Rashford. Delph played for 13 minutes. Dier played the last five minutes. Rashford came on for Sterling, in the first minute of stoppage time to see the game out. He probably touched the ball only a couple of times. And was still, in the eyes of the BBC-watching public, better than Sterling.

You get the sense that had people been able to rate the substitutes who did not play, then they, too, would’ve still been ranked higher than Sterling, for the way they cheered so passionately from their seats.

In the voting process, there appeared to be a blind disregard of the game’s first-half, in which Sterling was the only player to get in behind Sweden’s extremely tight and well-organised defence. Were it not for Robin Olsen’s brilliant save, reaching out a lightning hand as Sterling brought down Kieran Trippier’s ball and went to round him, then Sterling would’ve had his first goal of the tournament.

Strike partners in different roles

England manager Gareth Southgate doesn’t get it. At times he’s wondered why there is so much negative focus on Sterling compared to others in the team. Take his England strike partner Harry Kane, for example. Kane is World Cup top-scorer, but he hasn’t actually played considerably better than Sterling. There is an argument that Sterling has actually, overall, put in better performances.

“In the last five or six games, with the change of system, he has been key,” Southgate said during the World Cup. “His movement, his ability to run at teams from deep, his inter-changing of position with the other forward players is very important.”

Kane’s six goals have come from two balls that fell to him from close range, three penalties and Ruben Loftus-Cheek’s shot which came off his heel. If there is a luck quota for each team, Kane is completely hogging it all. Besides the goals, the ball hasn’t stuck to him up front as much as when he is at his sharpest, the way it does so regularly for Tottenham. He has looked knackered towards the end of some games.

Raheem Sterling of England is challenged by Victor Lindelof of Sweden on 7 July 2018 in Samara, Russia. (Getty Images)

Defenders absolutely hate playing against Sterling. Ask any of them. He is so rapid with and without the ball. He has been the target of some rough treatment at this World Cup, particularly in the Colombia last-16 game when their sizeable defenders rode all over him and even one of their coaches shouldered barged him as he left the field at half-time, and repeatedly yelled insults at him in Spanish when he rehydrated on the touchline during breaks in play.

Now take into consideration Sterling is not even playing in his most comfortable position he is used to at Manchester City. For England, he is support striker for Kane in a front two. At City, while he cuts inside regularly and can often be found on the ball in the middle, he starts out on the right of a front three.

Sterling has played as a central forward for City – he covered there when Sergio Aguero and Gabriel Jesus were injured – but it is not his strongest role. Pep Guardiola has been credited for moving Sterling up a level, for coaxing the best out of him, but it is not for want of trying that he should not feel the same way for his country as his club.

Managing confidence

Man-management and the group dynamic are as important to Southgate as deciding whether to play three at the back or one up top. Each time he has substituted Sterling during the World Cup he has made a point to embrace him in a big hug as he jogs back to the bench. Southgate wants Sterling to feel he belongs playing for a country who repeatedly make that difficult.

Just what is it about Sterling? Maybe there is a level of animosity which remains from the way he aggressively orchestrated his way out of Liverpool (arguably harsh on a young lad who only wanted to earn more money and give himself more chance of winning trophies, as he has done at City).

Maybe it is the fact the television cameras back home don’t capture Sterling’s continuous, relentless, defender-destroying running off the ball, the way he opens up spaces for his team-mates and stretches the opposition. Maybe hate fuels hate. Or maybe it is something else.

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